Got a new song to kick your collective behinds. This is the smash hit in Australia, ‘I Like The Way’, by British/Australian duo BodyRockers. I just heard it yesterday and, man, does it groove. Crank ‘er up!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

As always, my policy is that if anyone would like a download link for this song, just make a Comment below and ask – I’ll hook you up with a link in a comment-reply of my own (check back with this article). Download links are automatically embedded in my RSS feeds.

Decided I’d take a moment over this weekend to put up some cool, hi-res wallpapers of the new Ghost Rider movie coming out soon, starring Nicolas Cage. Don’t know how good the movie will be, but these walls sure are righteous. Put ‘em up on your PC at work and dare Lumbergh to give you any crap about your TPS reports.

(Click the thumbnails below, then right-click to save the full-sze images.)

Regular 4:3 screen ratio:

Widescreen Ratio:

Hey everyone. Pretty big news over this past week. This little blog is starting to really generate some respectable traffic numbers.

I’d like to take credit, but it seems everyone likes Becky, our little Irish prank caller! In the past week, the original article has been hit nearly 9,000 times and pingbacked a whole bunch by other sites. Glad you guys like Becky as much as I did.

So that’s cool – and welcome to everyone who is a new visitor! There’s lots of other great stuff here to check out besides my own distracted musings on my personal life. And don’t feel obligated to read the articles about me, most of my friends and family never do!

Speaking of my own life, this has been a GREAT weekend for Yours Truly. I am really nailing Cipher down and am winning big time at blackjack. I’m making at least $100 every session (about 2-3 sessions per day) and cleared over a $1000 in the last 48 hours!

So it looks like this whole “professional gambler” thing might just work out for me – at least until I get my next business venture together.

My two little munchkin nieces, Autumn and Julianna, got dressed up last night as little chickys for Halloween. Check ‘em out.

To paraphrase Mr. Jinks, I love nieces to pieces!

I know the video quality isn’t as good as some of my other home videos. I seem to be having trouble adjusting my camcorder to low indoor light.

Thought I’d take a moment today and share one of my favorite songs with you. I’d heard it years ago when it was used in the movie Eddie and the Cruisers. It was billed as the fictional band, but it’s actually performed by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. The more time goes by, the more I love this song.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

As always, my policy is that if anyone would like a download link for this song, just make a Comment below – I’ll hook you up with a link in a comment-reply of my own. Download links are automatically embedded in my RSS feeds.

One of the funniest things on HBO in recent years was Da Ali G Show, starring British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen as three different characters, one of which was Borat. Borat is an emissary from Kazakhstan who travels around the country in his new film, getting into silly situations and exposing American culture through some very clever satire.

Now you can check out the first four minutes of the film right here:

For some extra laughs, check out an episode from the HBO show, wherein Borat travels to a Southern bar to sing a one-of-a-kind country ditty about Kazakhstan and it’s special relationship with the Jews. Remember, this is all a put on and Cohen himself is Jewish!

I’ve been following this pretty cool-looking game for the Xbox 360 for some time now. It was recently announced that Star Trek: Legacy will arrive in stores in the next two weeks. It looks like it will be a blast!

ST:L is a game that covers all the eras of the Star Trek universe. In the single player mode, you get the opportunity to play out famous Star Trek space battles from all the various movies and series. In multiplayer mode, reports are, the game will be Xbox Live compatible and will feature multiplayer modes for skirmishes and co-op battles.

I’m hoping for some of you to join me online for some massive space battles. Beam me up, muthatruckas!

(Note the volume is a little low, so you may have to turn it up to hear the narration.)

Prohibition II: Good Grief

When government restricts Americans’ choices, ostensibly for their own good, someone is going to profit from the paternalism.
By George F. Will

Oct. 23, 2006 issue – Perhaps Prohibition II is being launched because Prohibition I worked so well at getting rid of gin. Or maybe the point is to reassure social conservatives that Republicans remain resolved to purify Americans’ behavior. Incorrigible cynics will say Prohibition II is being undertaken because someone stands to make money from interfering with other people making money.

For whatever reason, last Friday the president signed into law Prohibition II. You almost have to admire the government’s plucky refusal to heed history’s warnings about the probable futility of this adventure. This time the government is prohibiting Internet gambling by making it illegal for banks or credit-card companies to process payments to online gambling operations on a list the government will prepare.

Last year about 12 million Americans wagered $6 billion online. But after Congress, 32 minutes before adjourning, passed its ban, the stock of the largest online-gambling business, Gibraltar-based PartyGaming, which gets 85 percent of its $1 billion annual revenue from Americans, declined 58 percent in one day, wiping out about $5 billion in market value. The stock of a British company, World Gaming PLC, which gets about 95 percent of its revenue from Americans, plunged 88 percent. The industry, which has some 2,300 Web sites and did half of its business last year with Americans, has lost $8 billion in market value because of the new law. And you thought the 109th Congress did not accomplish anything. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been having a blast with the Cipher software and playing blackjack online over the last few days. Each session has been pulling in at least $100 and I racked up over $400 within the last 24 hours. I’m starting to master the techniques; now I just need to work on advancing my bankroll.

Thought I’d share some of this with you. Below are a couple of screenshots of some sessions and some really funky hands. In the first one, the Dealer tries a 6-card survival with 3 Aces, yet still loses! In the next thumbnail, you can see one of my better hands: a Split which ended very well for me. Pretty exciting way to spend your afternoons, kids!

If you’d like to see the current homepage for CIPHER, go here:

theGamblingEdge

To see the NEW homepage and tutorial I’m working on for their site, go here:

Cipher Blackjack Preview Page

NY Times Op-Ed Contributor

By CHARLES MURRAY

Published: October 19, 2006

Las Vegas

LAST week President Bush signed a law that will try to impede online gambling by prohibiting American banks from transferring money to gambling sites. Most Americans probably didn’t notice or care, but it may do significant political damage to the Republicans this fall and long-term damage to Americans’ respect for the law.

So, a month before a major election, the Republicans have allied themselves with a scattering of voters who are upset by online gambling and have outraged the millions who love it. Furthermore, judging from many hours of online chat with Internet poker players, I am willing to bet (if you’ll pardon the expression) that the outraged millions are disproportionately electricians, insurance agents, police officers, mid-level managers, truck drivers, small-business owners – that is, disproportionately Republicans and Reagan Democrats.

In the short term, this law all by itself could add a few more Democratic Congressional seats in the fall elections. We are talking about a lot of people (an estimated 23 million Americans gamble online) who are angry enough to vote on the basis of this one issue, and they blame Republicans.

In the long term, something more ominous is at work. If a free society is to work, the vast majority of citizens must reflexively obey the law not because they fear punishment, but because they accept that the rule of law makes society possible. That reflexive law-abidingness is reinforced when the laws are limited to core objectives that enjoy consensus support, even though people may disagree on means.

Thus society is weakened every time a law is passed that large numbers of reasonable, responsible citizens think is stupid. Such laws invite good citizens to choose knowingly to break the law, confident that they are doing nothing morally wrong.

Read the rest of this entry »